Sabertooth: A Fairy Tail
by OneWhoCharms
Summary: A chance meeting in the town of Hargeon between the celestial mage Yukino and the Twin Dragon Slayers Rogue and Sting, set the three (technically five) on the adventure of a life time.


**Hi Guys!**

 **This is just a little role-swap au with the Sabertooth characters since I love them!**

 **I have a few other WIP's that I'm working on at the minute so this'll just be a one shot for now, but I do have some plans for this story going forward. As always I don not own Fairy Tail or any of it's characters, I merely love them.**

* * *

On a sunny day in the city of Hargeon a white haired girl made her way down the street, meanwhile in the train station on the other side of the city, a platform attendant was busy trying to appease a group of upset passengers who had been kept from getting out of their car by a pair of young men who had blocked the door by laying on the floor in a groaning heap. Both parties were unaware of the threads of fate that were already working to pull them together.

 **:::::::::::::**

"There's no guild her!?" Yukino Aguria bemoaned.

The shop owner frowned sympathetically at the girl in front of him, "Fraid not, the folks around here are more fishermen than wizards. 'N fact this is the only magic shop around these parts, we really only get wizards who are passing through."

Yukino balled her fists up on the counter and put all her effort into not crying out in frustration. She'd spent the last month scouring the coastline of Fiore looking for wizarding guilds and the only other one she had come across was Mermaid Heel, and they'd struck her as just a little too small to help her with her problem.

The shop owner watched the emotions flash across her face, he started to root around behind the counter and soon pulled out a glossy magazine. Yukino noticed what he was holding out to her and took it in her hands, it was an issue of Sorcerer Weekly.

"The latest issue," he promised her "they usually have listings of all the guilds in Fiore, especially the popular ones." He wiggled his caterpillar eyebrows at her.

Yukino clutched the magazine to her chest as a smile broke out on her face, "Thank you so-"

"That'll be fifty jewel." He informed her cheerily.

The thanks she had been about to give shrank down to a squeak in her throat as she felt a sweat drop appear on her forehead.

 **:::::::::::**

Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Chenny staggered down the street while their exceeds Frosch and Lector bounced along the pavement at shin hight.

"Wow Sting! You recovered from that train in record time! They didn't even need to throw you guys off this time!" He cheered on his blonde haired partner, seemingly obliviousness to the lack of colour in his face.

Sting weakly held up his arm in a thumbs up, "Yeah, y-you bet..." he responded groggily.

Had Rogue been fairing any better he would have perhaps rolled his eyes, or huffed and told Lector not to praise Sting when he hadn't done anything. But as it was, he _wasn't_ fairing any better, so he settled for sending his fellow dragon slayer a glare while he hugged Forsch tighter to his chest.

"Where are we going now?" Frosch asked innocently.

Upon hearing that, the two mages stopped in their tracks, took a moment to digest the question, then fell to the ground in a heap once again because they realised they didn't know where they were going.

"The timetable at the station said the next train back to Crocus was tonight." Lector informed his groaning comrades, who's groaning only got louder at the mention of another train journey.

Sting bolted upright and slammed his fists down on either side of him, "Why do we need to get another train?! Can't we just walk home?!"

Rogue shifted into a crosslegged position and sighed, "We did just complete a job. I suppose there wouldn't be much harm in taking a little longer to get back to the guild."

Sting's face broke into a grin as he slapped his brother in arms on the back, "That's the spirit! It should only take like... three days to hike back?"

Before anyone could respond to him they were all distracted by the sound of ecstatic screaming. The party looked down the street to see a large mass of women were crowding around something in the square excitedly, two women ran around them talking excitedly.

"I can't believe that famous wizard has come to our town!" One squeeled

"Salamander the fire dragon!" The other cheered.

The two dragon slayers sat frozen in shock at their words.

"Fire dragon? ...That- they must be talking about an advanced fire mage." Rogue tried to put as much surety into his voice as possible but even he couldn't hide the shock those words had given him, it was especially evident in how his gaze fell downwards as he spoke. He only looked up when he noticed how still his partner had gone next to him, when he looked up he saw that indeed Sting was frozen like a statue, staring straight ahead at the crowd, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Fire dragon... Salamander..." He muttered.

Recognising where the blondes mind was going Rouge immediately leaned towards him, "No, Sting think about-" but he wasn't able to finish, because Sting was immediately on his feet and dashing towards the crowd, groaning through gritted teeth Rogue deposited Frosch on the ground next to Lector and ran after his friend.

 **:::::::::::**

Yukino walked down the street, her shoulders slumped, her feet trailing, and her purse 50 jewel lighter.

She let out a deep breath, "I really need to work on my haggling skills." She sighed to herself, she reached into her handbag and pulled out the magazine, the cover was a mosaic of the Fiore royal families crest surrounded by the sigils of Fiore's most recognisable guilds.

She opened up to the contents page and scanned over some of the article titles;

 _A Guide to the Guilds of_ _Fiore_

 _A day in the life of Lamia Scale_

 _Is it sexist to exclude men from your guild?_

 _Wedding bells to come!_

 _In memory of Fairy Tail: Where are they now?_

 _A rising star in Crocus._

Each of the titles was punctuated with the guilds sygils, most of them were familiar to her but the one at the end stuck out to her, the shape and white colour made it very reminiscent of an animal skull, the front of the skull was elongated to make the whole shape more like a rounded triangle and it gave the impression of long teeth. A sabertooth skull? Yukino wondered what the guild was called.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, looking up from her magazine she saw a large crowd of people gathering in the square, curiosity drew her closer in an attempt to see what the cause of the commotion was, she soon found herself getting sardined in the crush of the crowd, realising the potential rip situations this could cause Yukino tried slipping her magazine back into her handbag as neatly as possible, she just about managed but before she could close her bag again a jostle behind her pushed her forward to the front of the crowd, she just about managed to keep herself from falling over but to her embarrassment she had still managed to catch the attention of those around her, namely the man they were all fawning over.

He was tall with mauve coloured hair and a square jaw, his clothes were casual but with an embossed dark blue cape, and when his eyes fell on her Yukino felt her face heating up like a furnace.

He held his hand out to her, "Hello there." he said in a deep voice.

Yukino wanted to be polite and respond, but her body was shaking to much for her to move her hands away from where they were clenched over her chest, she opened her mouth but a quiet croak was all that came out since her heart was not only going a mile a minute but also seemed to be trying to crawl up her throat.

 _What's come over me?_ She thought to herself _Why is my heart beating so fast?_

The caped man left Yukino to her inner monologue and turned his attention to the rest of the crowd, "I'm happy to be surrounded by so many ladies but I really do need to get going."

At the sound of that Yukino felt fear build up inside her at the thought of him leaving, _Am I..._ she thought _Am I maybe in l-_

She was broken out of her thoughts when there were squawks of indignation from the other side of the crowd and a new comer suddenly burst through the barricade of people. He was blonde, very muscular she noticed, dressed in black boots that went up to his thighs and seemed to be hooked into his cream trousers, a similar pair of black suspenders that disappeared under his fir-rimmed blue jacket. What she mainly noticed about him was his face, he was all sharp angels, with a pointed chin and sharp blue eyes, with a thin scar slashing across his left eyebrow, and his mouth which was in an open mouthed grin showed of rows of white almost fang like teeth. And of course what she thought at the time had just been a trick of her light, he seemed to have a faint glow about him.

"Natsu!" He shouted as burst forward "Natsu is that you?!" Once he found himself face to face with the man who he apparently thought was 'Natsu' his face stayed in it's fixed expression of pure excitement for exactly two seconds before dropping instantly, "Who are you?" the blonde asked bluntly, much to the apparent shock of the caped man.

The wizard simply smirked a brought a hand to his chin, "If I said Salamander, would that ring any bells with you?"

But the blonde was already walking away.

Two women from the crowd angrily tackled him with screeches of "How dare you?!" and "Salamander is a top wizard!"

"What is wrong with you guys?" the blonde choked out as one of the women wrapped her arms around him in a headlock.

"Now, now that'll be enough. After all it's not like he _meant_ to be rude to me." Salamander chuckled, while pulling a note book from inside his cape.

The women immediately released from their two on one wrestling match while cooing at Salamander, meanwhile Yukino had regained her composure and with her head now cleared was able to look back on what had just happened and come to a realisation about Salamander which had her scowling.

Salamander Handed the blonde a piece of paper from his book, "My autograph," he informed the younger man "now you can brag to all your friends."

"I don't want it." The younger said blankly, and wound up getting kicked halfway down the street for his troubles.

As he groaned in pain a dark haired man of similar age, waring robe like clothes came to a stop were he had landed as if he had been trying to catch up with him. "I can't leave you alone for five minutes can I?" he asked in a solemn voice.

The fake Salamander raised his arms ceremoniously, "Ladies I hate to leave you so soon, but I hope I'll be seeing you all on my yatch tonight!"

And with a snap of his fingers he propelled himself into the air on a trail of purple flames.

Sting sulked on the ground, glaring daggers at the trail of fire shooting across the Hargeon's skyline. "What's that guys damage?" he grumbled to himself, Rogue still heard him of course,

"Well really, what were you expecting?" he chided, looking down at the blonde disapprovingly.

Sting clacked his teeth together in annoyance, "Like you wouldn't have done the same thing if they were calling him Black Steel."

Rogue didn't make a response but shodows unnaturally fell across his face.

The two would have gone on like that, falling into a familiar routine, but they were distracted by the sound of approaching footsteps, both mages looked up at the same time to see a cute platinum blonde wearing a green tank top and blue miniskirt, when the two sets of eyes landed on her she froze in place and clutched onto the straps of her shoulder bag while the other rose shakily to make a timid attempt a waving.

"Um, hello." She smiled.

 **:::::::::::**

And that's how the motley crew found themselves crowded around a table in a local tea shop, Yukino sipping on Darjeeling, Rogue inhaling a black coffee (after elbowing Sting in the ribs for making a joke about his 'aesthetic'), and Sting stuffing his face with a plate of cookies he'd ordered straight from the display exceeds were knowing on sweet treats of their own under the table.

"Thank you again for treating us." Rogue said on behalf of his friends.

"It's really nothing Mr. Cheney-"

"Us mall meim Rohh." Sting interrupted her around his full mouth.

Yukino quirked an eyebrow, not wanting to be rude and point out his incomprehensibility, luckily Rogue saved her from having to bring it up.

"He's saying you can just call us by our first names Yukino." They had already made all their introductions back in the town square.

Yukino blanched a bit at the familiarity but nodded none the less. "As I was saying, it's really nothing. Actually it's the least I can do after what you did back in the square."

Mouth now free of cookies, Sting beamed and waved his hand dismissively, "Ah, it was no trouble forget about it, happy to help." He rattled off before leaning closer to Rogue, "What did we do again?" He whispered.

Yukino couldn't help the giggle that bubbled out of her lips, "That 'Salamander' was using a type of magic known as charm magic. It's a type of holder magic that clouds the mind and sways the hearts of others in the magicians favour. But it's weakness is awareness so when Sting came bursting in he disrupted the charms affect on me." Yukino pulled her lips into a thin line as she thought more on what she knew about charm spells, "But they were outlawed by the Magic Council years ago, it should have been impossible for him to get his hands on one."

Sting sneered audibly, "Using tricks like that to try and get girls, what a creep."

"That's putting it lightly." Rogue agreed, a dark aura simmering around his body line.

Sensing the change in the two's moods, Yukino quickly changed the subject, "I realise I don't look like much, but I'm actually a wizard myself."

The two sitting across from her immediately perked up at that tidbit of information, Yukino felt something crawling up her legs, she looked down to see Lecter crawling onto her lap,

"You are?" He asked excitedly.

She smiled despite her usual shyness, something about these guys made her feel more at ease. "Well only sort of, I'm a celestial wizard but I don't belong to any guild. That's actually why I came to Hargeon in the first place, I've been hoping that if I could get onto the guild circuit then I could-" Yukino immediately cut herself off, when she realised she'd been rambling, but to her surprise neither Sting nor Rogue made any comments about it, they simply looked at her silently, waiting for her to continue, she swallowed and looked down at the table, "I was hoping that it would make something I'm trying to do easier, that's why even though I realise I'm nothing special I was hoping to get into one of the bigger guilds." She laughed a little awkwardly, hoping to alleviate the mood, but that attempt was rendered moot when Sting slammed his hands down on the table and stood up with a pointy toothed grin.

"Well then today's your lucky day! Cause you happen to be sitting across two mages from the strongest guild on the continent!" He boasted, and were Yukino's eyes playing tricks on her or was he actually glowing?

The celestial wizards eyes widened at the statement, _strongest guild?_

"You're from Lamia Scale?" She asked excitedly.

Both mages simultaneously fell to the floor, clouds of despondency hanging over their heads.

Yukino pressed her fingertips to her lips, clearly that was the wrong thing to say. She felt Lecter's furry paw tug at her arm from where he was still seated in her lap. "Actually," he explained as he pulled up his blue waistcoat to reveal a pale pink guild mark stamped on his back, which Yukino instantly remembered from her magazine. "We're from the Sabertooth guild."

"Sabertooth." She repeated in a hushed tone.

Climbing back into his chair Rogue chimed in, "It's true that technically we are still one of the newer guilds, and therefore smaller, but the strength of our members cannot be denied."

"So you and Sting are both wizards as well?"

Sting popped back onto his feet like his momentary despair had never happened, "Not only are we wizards we're two of our guilds best!" He slapped Rogue on the back, "Known far and wide as the twin dragons of Sabertooth!"

"So does that mean you're here on a job?" Yukino asked, hoping to avoid bringing up that she'd never heard of them.

"Actually we just finished a mission in Seven, we're passing through on our way back to Crocus." Rogue explained.

"All the way over in Seven?" Yukino gasped, "It must have been a really important job."

"Oh it was intense." Sting confirmed,

"We were hired to take care of some bandits." Rogue negated,

"There were dozens of them!" Sting continued,

"I counted ten."

"We fought from dawn till dusk!"

"It took us an hour tops."

Yukino couldn't help the laughter that bubbled from her lips at their squabbling, she had to admit it was nice spending time with these two, she'd been traveling by herself for so long... Yukino struggled to remember the last time someone had made her laugh.

"Anyway, what I was _trying to say._ " He directed very pointedly towards Rogue, "Was that if you're looking for a guild to join than look no further."

Yukino stilled, "What?"

Sting jumped to his feet, propping one of his feet up on his chair and folding his arms over his chest, striking a victorious figure, "As one of the guilds top three mages I officially invite you to join the Sabertooth Guild!"

"Even though you don't have the authority to do that." Rogue muttered, earning a glare from Sting.

"Could I really join your guild?" Yukino whispered.

Rogue softened a bit a the tone of her voice and the spark of hope in her eyes, he nipped at his bottom lip with the point of his canine before answering, "You could definitely apply," he conceded, "as I mentioned before our guilds greatest merit is the strength of its members magic, if you can prove your power I see no reason why you wouldn't be allowed to join."

Yukino balled her hands into fists so tightly that Lector felt the tension in her arms, "And how could I prove myself?" She asked determinedly, staring the dark dragon in the eye.

Both Rogue and Sting reacted to this new side of the platinum blonde.

"Well you could beat one of our guild members in a fight." Sting suggested.

Yukino blanched at the thought, she'd never fought another wizard before. She'd had some training in hand-to-hand combat but that was mainly for self defense, and she'd practiced some tactics with her spirits that could be used in combat but she'd never had a chance to actually put them into practice. If her only chance at getting into the guild was winning a fight, she didn't like her chances.

"Is there anything else I could do?" She asked, trying not to lose any of the credit she had potentially won with Sting and Rogue.

"Uh, well..." Sting mentally grappled for another idea, trials by combat were his go to idea and since he usually won those he liked to leave plan B's to Rogue, he really didn't want to discourage Yukino from trying to get into the guild though _so come on brain come up with something!_

"You could beat up a bandit." Frosch chirped innocently from where he was twined around Rougue's legs.

All three wizards brightened at the idea.

"Yeah! If you take out some bad guys, their wanted posters would make one hell of a resume." Sting cheered.

"It could work." Rogue agreed.

"Then it's decided, you tag along with us on the hike back to Crocus and somewhere along the line you knock the senses out of some wizard gone wild, simple as!" Sting punched the air as he spoke.

Yukino felt a grin brake out on her face, this was it, her chance to finally become an official wizard, to get one step closer to finding Sorano. All she had to do was... and like they always did, her thoughts began to spiral. She had to find some sort of criminal she could defeat if she wanted even a _chance_ for them to accept her, what if there weren't any criminals between here and Crocus? What if there were but she couldn't beat them by herself? Hell, if it weren't for Sting and Rogue she wouldn't have been able to save herself from the fake Salamanders charm spell-

"That's it!" Yukino cheered, suddenly jumping from her chair. Lector clutching fearfully to the material of her skirt.

"What's it?" Sting asked in confusion.

"That fake Salamander, he was using illegal charm spells on that huge crowd back in the square, and before he left he said something about a yacht party tonight, I bet if we head down to the docks before sundown we can catch him." Yukino could feel the excitement at the forming idea strengthening her.

The twin dragon slayers shared a look with each other before smiling and raising to their feet to meet Yukino.

 **:::::::::::::::**

The Yacht was unmissable once they arrived on the docks, the group of five made their way down the docks, Rogue covering them with his shadow magic, which were mostly deserted except for the workers getting the yacht ready to set sail and other women who were heading the same way as Yukino.

During their wait for evening time Yukino had changed into the only dress she had packed for her journeys, were it not for the silky material it would hahe looked more like a tea dress, she chose a pair of nice flat shoes for practicality. Feeling the leather pouch she usually kept her keys in which hung from her waist would be too obvious, Yukino tugged a ribbon from the waistline of one of her skirts and used it to tie her keys around her thigh. Hoping that she looked like someone going to a party she met with Sting, Rogue, Lector and Frosch after changing and headed towards the water.

"Are you ready?" Rogue whispered to Yukino from where he had literally melded into the shadows.

Yukino gave a wordless nod, not trusting her voice to keep her nerves a secret. She felt something brush against her ankles and looked down to see Frosch and Lector hugging her legs, "Good Luck." Lector wished her, and Yukin gave the two of them a small smile before turning to face the ship.

Before she walked away though, she said to Sting and Rogue "Thank you."

"What for?" Sting asked.

"For not asking to come with me, it means a lot that you trust me to do this on my own." Yukino smiled.

The two males fixed their eyes on the ship behind her and tried to fight off the green tinge growing on their skin at the thought of boarding it.

"Yep, that's why we did that." Sting choked out.

Yukino steeled her nerves and stepped out of the cloak of Rogue's shadows, but before she got out of arms reach she felt a hand clap her on the shoulders, "You'll do great." A voice whispered, but she couldn't tell which of the boys it belonged to.

Once she was on board the ship Yukino wandered around the deck, doing her best to look casual doing it. Every other guest seemed to be an excited woman around her age, she recognised a few of them from the town square, and Yukino couldn't help but feel a bit self conscious of how well put together they all looked. One thing the celestial mage couldn't help but notice was that the only men on board seemed to all be keeping to certain positions, along the railings or at the doors leading inside the cabin or below deck. The so-called Salamander didn't reveal himself until the city was just lights in the distance.

Yukino gulped as she watched him schmooze his way through the crowd, her plan was that if she could just keep him in her sights until they docked again, then she could wait until the other's wouldn't get hurt in the scuffle, then she would bring him to Sting and Rogue and she could call it a victory! That was all very good in theory but the boat felt like it was moving at a snails pace, and every time she watched Salamander for too long she worried that someone might catch her staring, but then when she looked away she was worried she might lose him. The whole thing was giving her heart palpitations.

"Well fancy seeing you again?" Said a familiar voice as the weight of an arm dropped around her shoulders.

"Ahh-ha-gain?" Yukino did her best to warp her surprised shriek into an actual response as she found herself face to face with the Salamander.

He gave her a smug grin, "You were in the town square this afternoon, I wouldn't forget such pretty white hair." The arm around Yukino's shoulder tightened like a snake. "In fact I was rather hoping you'd be here."

"Really?"

He leaned in even closer to her face, "Why don't we go somewhere private to have a... chat" He said in a low tone.

Her immediate instincts were to duck out of his grip and deny him vehemently, but she remembered the reason she had come here, so instead she steeled her nerves took a gulp of air and told the sleaze that she would love to.

Inside the cabin was decorated like a mansions living room, plush carpet, damask sofas and a purple curtain drawn across the walls, giving the room a closed off feeling. Yukino waited for the Salamander to sit down in the middle of one sofa and then promptly sat on the one on the other side of the small table. He poured an orange coloured drink into two champagne flutes.

"First we should pour the wine and make a toast." He said, sliding one of the glasses towards her, he snapped his fingers a wobbly builds of liquid lifted out of the glass and floated through the air towards her. "Just open those beautiful lips... and allow these jewel drops of the fruit of the vine to dance upon your taste buds."

Either the man was just _that_ caught up in himself or he really didn't see Yukino's twitching as she struggled to keep her cool in the face of his supreme creepiness.

 _That's it,_ Yukino thought to herself, _time to act._

And with that thought she stood up from her seat, swatting the wine out of the air with the back of her hand as she did so, this earned her a nicely confused look on the Salamanders face. She stared down at him with renewed vigor, subtly sliding her other hand to the place under her dress where she could feel her keys through the fabric.

"What's the meaning of this?" He asked, only sounding annoyed.

"I'm here on behalf of the Sabertooth guild." She announced confidently (technically true), "and I'm going to bring you in for possession of illegal charm spells. I'd rather not risk harming the people outside but I'm prepared to fight you if I must."

For a moment he didn't say anything, the room was filled only with the sound of waves lapping against the boat and chatter from the guests outside. The Salamanders face was frozen in his look of annoyance and mild confusion. That is until he started laughing.

Yukino flinched at the sound, laughing was not something people did when they were at a disadvantage.

"What will I do with you?" He asked rhetorically, taking a stand, "If you'd just allowed yourself to get drugged this wouldn't have hurt."

All Yukino could do was let out a strangled "Huh?" before she felt huge hands grabbing her thickly by the arms. Twisting around as much as she could in the sudden grasp Yukino found that a giant of a man had emerged from behind the curtain, he was grizzly and stacked with muscle, just like the ones she'd seen out of deck.

"Our first big-ticket item of the night! That's Salamander for ya!" The thug cheered as he stretched Yukino's arms out to the side with a painful amount of force.

The Salamander kicked the table against the wall and walked forward, grabbing Yukino by the chin and bringing her face close to his again.

"Welcome aboard my slave ship." He grinned at her. "You are going to behave yourself until we arrive in the country of Bosco young lady."

"Bosco?!" Yukino yelped. That country was infamous for it's underground black market but she'd never expected them to be connected to slavery.

"I've got it all worked out you see, girls fall under my charm spell and then I use that power to lure their tasty little selves on board and become our cargo."

"But you didn't take to the charm, so we'll just have to brake ya in. Hehehe." The goon who was holding her breathed into Yukino's ear.

A shudder ran through her body, desperately Yukino tried to twist out of the hands holding her but his grip was iron tight. Suddenly she felt a hand on her thigh, Yukino looked down only to see the Salamanders hand running up the outerside of her leg and under her dress. Yukino squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth in reaction, but the hand pulled away just as quickly as it had appeared. Yukino opened her eyes and raised her view back up to the Salamander to see a sight that threatened to bring tears to her eyes. Her keys, her beautiful golden keys were glittering in the hands of that scumbag, he ran his fingers over them like it was nothing.

"Gate keys? So she was a celestial wizard." Salamander muttered to himself.

"Celestial? What's that?" The henchman asked.

"Oh it doesn't matter, only parties to the contract can use this magic, in other words, since it can't help me..." Instead of finishing his sentence the Salamander merely threw her keys out the open window.

Yukino felt her heart rip in half and jump into her throat. The white haired girl hung her head in despair, sweat was rolling down her forehead and there was an erratic thumping in her chest.

 _What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?_

The thoughts screamed as they viciously circled around her head. She was so caught up in her distress she didn't even notice Salamander pulling a steaming item out of the air.

"The first thing we do with slaves is brand them." He informed her, "It'll sting a bit but grit your teeth and bear it alright?"

So this was it? Yukino had always brought misfortune to those around her but she never thought she would bring such a fate on herself. But what could she do? She was outnumbered, she had no keys, no power. She had nothing. Through the ringing in her ears and the static filling her mind the laughter of the women outside filtered into Yukino's senses.

 _What's going to happen to them?_

 _What about them?_

 _What about Sting and Rogue? Their still waiting at the docks for me._

 _What about Sorano? I still need to find her._

Unnoticed by her captures, Yukino clenched her hands into fists and glared at the slave driver in front of her with magma in her eyes. First Yukino sucked in a lungful of air, and then she swiftly jerked her leg up backwards, right in between the legs of the goon holding her.

He let out an _oomph_ and for a split second his grip on her arms loosened, taking that brief window of opportunity Yukino threw her weight forward and her limbs slipped through his hands like thread out of the eye of a needle. After a brief stumble she broke into a run and dove through the open window.

The cold salty water was a harsh shock to her senses, she bobbed her head up to the surface briefly to suck in more air before diving beneath the water again. It was dark in the water, she could barely see a thing, but she could still feel the connection to her spirits guiding her to the rocky alcove her keys had landed on. Slapping her hand down on the hard surface she scrapped her fingers into a fist, clutching her keys in her hand, Yukino began wildly kicking her way towards the sky.

The minute her white haired head broke the surface of the water, she thrust her arm into the air, pointing a familiar key towards the starry heavens and shouted.

"Open! Gate of the twin fish, Pieces!"

There was a swelling of golden light as the two giant koi fish materialized around her.

"Pieces!" She called out, all the while trying to keep herself afloat amongst the waves Pieces had caused when they appeared. She pointed towards the ship "Surround them and bring them back into shore!"

The two fish spirits immediately moved to follow her order, skating across the surface of the water and circling the ship, the two twined themselves around the vessel and kept twisting, creating a whirlpool in the water a slowly lifting the ship into the air. This had unfortunate consequences for their mistress.

"Wait! Wait! I wasn't finished! Pick me up first!" Yukino did her best to tell her spirits but the waves just dunked more water into her mouth.

Once they had built up enough force Pieces rushed the elevated ship in the direction of the shore line, creating a massive wave as they went. There was a deafening crash was the ship and wave meet the sand, creating a near explosion as it destroyed the docks nearby.

Yukino groaned in pain, lying flat out on the sand, having been swept up in the wave. Pieces floated into her field of vision, looking down at their mistress with what she swore was concern on their fishy faces, she relaxed the death grip she had on her keys and raised the one for Pieces towards them, "Thank you." She groaned as the two disappeared in a flash.

"Woah-ho!" Came a shout from atop a mountain of wooden wreckage. Sting and Rogue stood there, like hikers who had reached the summit of a mountain, both their exceeds clinging to their coats.

Sting was looking around the scene before him animatedly, while Rogue silently moved his eyes across the area, taking in all there was to see. He was the first to spot Yukino, so he jumped down to meet her on the ground, Sting following suit like it was natural.

"Are you all right?" Rogue asked, offering her a hand up.

She offered him her best smile, "I'm fine." She assured him as he pulled her to her feet. Both Frosch and Lector jumped from their wizards shoulders and crowded around Yukino's feet.

"Talk about making a first impression! Way-to-go Yu-kin-o." Sting congratulated her, patting her spiritedly on the back. "I knew I had a good feeling about you. The rest of Sabertooth is going to love you." He said happily, almost blinding her with his grin.

"You certainly showed a great display of strength." Rogue agreed, still surveying the beach. "Now we just need to tie up the lose end that is Salamander."

" _Fake_ Salamander." Sting grunted.

At that, Yukino's head cleared of the last of it's dizziness, her eyes widened and she began spinning around looking for the familiar figure.

"He's not just a fake." She panted out, not having fully regained the wind that had been knocked out of her lungs.

"What do you mean?" Rogue asked.

But before Yukino could answer, on the other side of the beach, wooden planks shifted as the fake Salamander and a few of his goons crawled to the surface.

"This has gotten way out of control Bora." The thug who had been holding Yukino grunted to the fake Salamander.

"Bora?" Yukino repeated. "Is that his real name?"

Behind her both Rogue and Sting went rigid.

"Bora... A few years back there was a man named Bora the Prominence was expelled from the Twilight Ogre guild for using illegal magic to aid in thievery."

"I remember that." Rogue growled.

There was a sudden weight dropped around Yukino's shoulders, reaching her hands up to feel it, Yukino looked down to see that Sting had draped his waist coat around her shoulders.

"Sorry Yukino," he said, while he glared straight ahead at the slave trader, "Seems like we dumped to much trouble into your lap."

The twin dragons began striding forward, when they passed her Yukino couldn't help the shiver that ran over her skin as she felt the waves of magical energy rolling off the two of them.

Without even saying a word to each other they fell into perfect synch, Sting jumped into the air, flying towards the fake Salamander like a missile, at the same time as his blonde partner left the ground Rogue dissapeared into it. The shadows at his feet seemed to raise upwards and cover his form before pulling him down into the dark. After that the shadows on the ground spread out and surrounded the entirety of the wreckage, all of the people who had managed to crawl out of it and were preparing to make a run from the scene, suddenly found themselves sinking into the shadows like they were standing in quicksand.

"Shadow Dragon's vortex." Rogue's disembodied voice echoed around the beach.

Bora saw this all unfold around him and quickly scrabbled back onto the ship wreck with a look of horror on his face. Things only got worse for the crook from there because the ground he was cowering on splintered into a thousand pieces when Sting landed right in front of him with the force of a boulder.

"You were bad enough when I thought you were just slandering the name of my old friend. But after what Yukino just told me, I real want to tear you apart." Sting growled, flashing a mouth full of sharp white teeth with every word.

Bora seemed to have more pride than sense though because an indignant look came alive on his face and he decided to respond to Sting by unleashing a blast of white hot flame, "Enough with the speeches you little brat!" He screamed.

"Sting!" Yukino shrieked as the blonde's entire body was engulfed in fire.

"Oh don't worry about that." Said Lector calmly from where was at her feet.

Yukino let out a stalled noise at the back of her throat at the sight of Lector's apparent apathy. But the flames on the far side of the beach suddenly swelled and moved unnaturally around Sting's body, swirling towards his mouth.

With a sucking motion, Sting unhinged his jaw and pulled all of the white hot flames into his gullet before swallowing, leaving only the barest of singes on his clothes.

"Man this stuff stinks!" Sting complained, wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist, "And you call yourself a fire wizard?"

"What?!" Both Bora and Yukino exclaimed simultaneously.

"As long as it's white, it can't hope to hurt Sting." Lector explained.

Yukino stared at the scene before her in shock, "I've never seen magic like this before." She murmured to herself.

Back over on the other side of the beach Sting patted his belly, "It might have been a crappy meal, but I'd say I'm all set for the big finish." With a smirk the white dragon slayer shouted out to the shadows beneath them, "Hey Rogue! You ready?"

A beam of shadow shot out of the ground behind where Bora was trembling, dissolving to reveal Rogue now falling towards the ship like Sting had been a few minutes ago, the shadow dragon slayer stretched out his right hand and encased it in shadow magic. "Ready!"

Sting grinned up at his partner, mirroring his actions, raising his arm and encasing his hand in white light, Sting leapt towards Bora, and both dragon slayers hit him at the same time from both sides.

Razor thin lines of black and white slashed across Bora's body, causing the sham wizard to yelp out in pain as his eyes rolled back in his head.

"White Shadow Dragon Rough Silk!" Sting and Rogue shouted out in unison, as their combined attack created an explosion of energy.

Yukino threw her arms over her face to shield her eyes, and when she sensed some calmness returning to the air she dared to look again, only to drop her jaw at the sight. Bora and all of his men were now lying in a groaning heap at the bottom of a steaming curator where the ship wreck had been.

The twin dragons of Sabertooth bumped their fists together in triumph.

"Just what are those two?" Yukino whispered.

"Sting and Rogue are dragon slayers." Frosch answered her without realising she hadn't actually been asking him.

"Dragon Slayers?" A foggy memory pulled at the back of Yukino's mind at the name, a rare kind of lost magic based around consuming the elements.

She lifted her eyes to the two dragon slayers making their way back over to her.

 _Amazing._ Yukino thought to herself before blanching. _That being said I think they may have caused more damage than they prevented._

The sound of a whistle pulled Yukino from her thoughts, twisting her head around she saw a troop of armored figures marching down the street, a familiar seal emblazoned on their shields.

"The Rune Knights!" Yukino gasped.

Only to suddenly be yanked off the ground and feel herself being pulled through the air at inhuman speeds. Sting had thrown Yukino over his shoulder like a sack of flour, while Rogue was holding Frosch and Lector under both his arms while the two of them bolted from the scene of the crime.

"Crap! We gotta get out of here!" Sting yelped, any adrenaline loss the fight might have caused didn't show at all.

Yukino did her best to twist around to look at him, "What? Why are we running? Actually, why are you bringing me?"

Sting looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, not dropping his speed even a little, "You kidding? I told we told you, you passed the test with flying colours!"

Yukino's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she realised what he was saying, looking over at Rogue, the dark haired man was looking straight ahead, but he was smiling none the less.

"So let's get back to the guild." Sting said to her with a huge grin.

And whether it was the wind in her face or the swelling in her heart, tears started pooling up in Yukino's eyes.

"Okay!" She shouted over the winds rushing past her ears, she wanted everyone to hear her.


End file.
